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The Last Trump
The Rapture, the Second Coming, or some other time?
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By: The John Ankerberg Show
Dr. Renald Showers: According to
1 Corinthians 15, “the last trump” will be sounded, and then according
to Matthew 24 there will be the sound of a great trumpet when the Lord
Jesus comes out of Heaven in His glorious Second Coming.
And so, some say, “Look, you obviously have a trumpet blown
at the Rapture. It’s the trump of God. It’s the last trump. And you obviously
have a trump being blown at the Second Coming of Christ after the Tribulation
Period, therefore, the Rapture and the Second Coming must take place at the
same time.“
It couldn’t be
before because if the Rapture is taking place before the Second Coming
and there’s a trumpet there which is supposedly the “last” trump, but
then later on, maybe seven-years later, you have a trumpet at the Second Coming
of Christ, then how could the trumpet at the Rapture be the last trump when you’ve got a trump supposedly
seven-years later at the Second Coming of Christ?
Even the trumpet
that will be blown at the Second Coming of Christ will not be the absolute last
trumpet blown here on planet Earth.
When you go to
Zechariah 14, we are clearly told there that during the Lord’s reign upon the
earth — this would be during the future Millennial Reign — that the Feast of
Tabernacles is going to be observed every year here on the earth.
And we’re told in verse 16, “It shall come to pass that
everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go
up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the
feast of tabernacles. It shall be that whoso shall not come up of all the
families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts,
even upon them shall be no rain.”
And He goes on to indicate that, verse 18, “if the family of
Egypt go not up and come not that have no rain, there shall be the plague
wherewith the Lord shall smite the heathen that will not come up to keep the
feast of tabernacles,” indicating that every year throughout the Thousand
Year Reign of Messiah upon the earth the people of the world will be required
to observe the Feast of Tabernacles.
Now, when you study
what’s involved with the Feast of Tabernacles, you have the blowing of trumpets
in the Feast of Tabernacles.
This means you will
have the blowing of trumpets every year throughout the Thousand Year Reign of
Christ.
Neither can you
automatically equate the trumpet at the Rapture with the trumpet of the Second
Coming of Christ.
Then, why is the
trump of the Rapture called “the last trump”?
Well, it’s not
indicating the absolute last trump; it’s got another significance to it and
there are several possibilities with regard to this.
For one thing, it’s
interesting that Paul refers to the last trump in 1 Corinthians 15 and in
the immediately preceding chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, he refers to the blowing
of a trumpet and there he’s referring to a military trumpet.
In light of that,
it would appear that he has military trumpets in mind when he’s writing 1
Corinthians 15.
So, it could very
well be that when he refers to the last trump which will be blown at the
Rapture, he has a military trumpet in mind. What’s the significance of that?
When you study the Roman army and some of the Greek armies and
even the Jewish army back in Bible times, when they went into war, they had a “last
trump” that would be blown that would tell the fighting men, “Your time
of fighting is over. It is time for you to go home and rest.”
A “last trump”
ended their time in the warfare.
By analogy, the
Scriptures teach that Christians today are involved in a spiritual war while
they live out their lives in this present age in this present world.
When the Rapture
takes place and the trumpet is blown at that time, that will be a signal to
them that their part in the warfare is over; their fighting in this present age
is done in this spiritual war.
It is time for them
to go home to be with the Lord and rest together with Him in Heaven.
In addition, when
you read about the use of trumpets in the military of the ancient world,
particularly with the Romans, they had a first trump that signaled when a man
was to start his watch on guard duty, but then they had a “last trump” which
signaled that his time on guard duty was over and again it was time for him to
go home.
In other words,
before that last trump he’s on watch; he’s watching, watching, watching to be
on guard. But when the last trump is sounded, that tells him his watching is
done, he can go home.
Scriptures also teach that while Christians are living in the
world in this present age, we are to continually be watching, watching,
watching and the idea again could be that when the Rapture takes place and that
trumpet is sounded, it’s a signal to them, “this is the last trump signaling
that your tour of duty on the watch is completed and now it’s time for you to
go home.”
And the fact that
Paul, when he mentions the last trump, doesn’t explain to the Corinthians what
he meant by that indicates that they understood what he meant by “the last
trump.”
And they were very
familiar, being part of the Roman empire, with that terminology of “the last
trump” signals used for Roman soldiers, whether their fighting is done or
their tour of duty on the watch is over for that day.
So that would have
a tremendous significance to them in light of those military uses of the day.
Real
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